said Sumner "deserved a sound thrashing—& got it!" When Fort Sumter was shelled by Confederate forces (opening the American Civil War), Tayloe believed that peace could still be restored. A prominent Whig, Tayloe supported Henry Clay for President in 1840. When Clay did not win the nomination, Tayloe supported William Henry Harrison, and his efforts on Harrison's behalf led the new President to consider him a confidante. Tayloe also played an important role in Henry Clay's unsuccessful 1844 candidacy for President of the United States. He made many friends among the diplomatic corps, among them the Belgian Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary Comte Auguste Vanderstraeten-Ponthoz, with whom he met in 1843 (the Comte departed in 1844) and kept up a 20-year correspondence. After a long illness, Julia Tayloe died on July 4, 1846. Willard Hotel lawsuit Tayloe divested himself of his hotel business in 1847. He had renovated the "hotel" on Pennsylvania Avenue in 1843 and 1844. But by 1847 the structures were in disrepair and Tayloe was desperate to find a tenant who would maintain them and run the enterprise profitably. A chance encounter led to the founding of one of the most legendary hotels in the city's history. Tayloe had become engaged to Phoebe Warren, another young woman from Troy, New York. Miss Warren was traveling on the Steamer Niagara (a ship which traveled up and down the Hudson River) when she met Henry Willard, a chief steward aboard the vessel. Miss Warren was so impressed with the way Willard handled the ship's and passengers' needs that she recommended him to her fiancé. Willard visited Washington, D.C., in October 1847 to meet with Tayloe, who subsequently leased the six hotel buildings to him. Willard combined them into a single structure in 1850 and enlarged it into a four story-hotel he called the Willard Hotel. Tayloe's lease to Willard later generated an important case before the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1854, Tayloe leased the property again to Willard, this time for 10 years at a rate of $1,200 per year. The lease contained a provision that Willard could purchase the entire property at any time during the life of the lease for $22,500—$2,000 in "cash" down payment and another $2,000 a year plus interest thereafter until the mortgage was paid. During the lease, the Civil War broke out and property values in Washington, D.C., skyrocketed. In